My terror in the sky: Wife tells of horror after her husband sabotaged parachute

A woman whose husband tried to murder her by sabotaging her parachute has told how she fought for her life while hurtling to the ground.

Emile, 42, who had children aged two and five weeks at the time, said Army sergeant husband Emile has suggested the skydive but opted out claiming he couldn’t find a childminder.

Speaking five years on, the Scots mum has told how their marriage had spiralled out of control amid his affairs and money problems.

She later discovered the parachute sabotage was the second time he had tried to kill her, having previously tampered with a gas cooker pipe at their home while he was staying at barracks.

In her autobiography, I Survived, published next month, she says: “The parachute jump had been my husband’s idea. Something we could do together, he said. But in the end, he hadn’t been able to join me because he couldn’t find anyone to look after the children.

“I jumped and deployed the parachute. There was an uneven jolt. I was shocked to see the lines keeping me tied to the parachute were twisted.

“I detached the main parachute and deployed the back-up, bracing myself for the inevitable jolt. It never came. As an experienced parachutist, I knew there was one chance in a million that a parachute and back-up would fail.

“I have to fix this, I told myself, as I fought for my life. My children need me. As I plummeted in a violent spin through the sky, there was no sound but the scream of the air. Then out of nowhere, I heard a loud metallic bang. And everything went black.”

Miraculously, Victoria, originally from East Lothian, survived and an investigation revealed her equipment had been damaged. Cilliers, 38, was given life with a minimum 18 years in 2018 after being found guilty of trying to murder his wife by tampering with her parachute and by sabotaging a gas valve at their home in Amesbury, Wiltshire.

Victoria said problems arose after they married as he frittered cash from their joint account on hobbies such as climbing while she was left to pay the bills. Victoria, who had a £120,000 life insurance policy, also uncovered evidence he was having affairs and was involved in online dating.